Banksy highlights the huge obstacle of the Israeli West Bank Barrier during a visit to Ramallah in Palestine.
Photograph: PA

Your musical mission this week? To get across to the other side. What’s standing in your way? Bars? The sound barrier? Neither, but to make it you must traverse the special RR obstacle course of topical songs and sounds. And we’re off …

Standing at the first obstacle is a huge object. It is actually a very big and hairy man. His name is Steve Earle, and he highlights the first obstacle - self-belief, focus, energy: “I don’t really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.”

So songs about being a barrier to yourself may feature. And in particular confidence is perhaps the first obstacle to many people. It can be derived from where they perceive their place to be in the world. Here’s Bonnie Raitt on why she struggled with that rope bridge: “One of the biggest obstacles I’ve overcome in my life was thinking I didn’t deserve to be successful. Artistically I’m not as much of a heavyweight as someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell, because I’m not a creator of original music, and I worried about that for years.”

Another big wall to climb can also derive from their social demographic of for example, gender, race or political oppression. So the wall might not be merely physical. So your songs might take in the context of Berlin’s wall to the barriers on Palestinian territories, something highlighted in Banksy’s wry graffiti on a trip made to the West Bank.

But perhaps the most famous barrier is really a role reversal, an act against oppression, when in 1989 one brave individual, carrying a shopping bag, stood up to tanks and stopped them moving, temporarily, in China’s Tiananman Square.

A Chinese man stands alone in 1989 to block a line of tanks heading east in Tiananmen Square in protest against violence against pro-democracy demonstrators Photograph: Jeff Widener/AP

Standing by this, and other issues, and encouraging you to climb many such walls, is rights activist Rev Al Sharpton who highlights a double barrier: “Like myself, President Obama is the father of two daughters. He understands the obstacles that they face as women, but he also understands the emergency of the state of young black men in America.” Big walls to climb there, and certainly big in song.

Now, who’s that slim woman emerging through a maze of tunnels? It’s PJ Harvey - and she’s made it! How? She’s found a clever and different route. “Maybe I’m just purely lucky. If I’ve come up against obstacles I’ve always found another way around it.” Perhaps that’s why she recorded her last studio album in public view. So your song suggestions might be about how to find solutions and take chances.

PJ Harvey recorded her last album in public. She’s always finding her way around obstacles. Photograph: Seamus Murphy/PA

Next up fare the stepping-stone pillars. Not easy. How can you get over? It’s all about practising your skills. Otherwise you may likely fall and fail. Here’s opera star Bryn Terfel on breaking the performance barrier. “If you have a recital to do, you have to memorise the songs. I never use music when I do recitals. It produces an instant barrier, both for yourself and the audience.”

Who’s that on the rope swing? It’s Sufjan Stevens who explains how “we learn most about our characters through tension, when they are put up against insurmountable obstacles. This is true in real life.” There’s a different kind of tension on that rope, but that’s where things move.

Herbie Hancock is having a great time stepping through those tyres. He loves it: “It’s part of life to have obstacles. It’s about overcoming obstacles; that’s the key to happiness.” For some it’s all about meeting challenges and that’s what those songs might cover.

Now across a roadblock there are competitors fighting each other. They’ve both come far but what’s that in the way? An elephant or a massive touring truck? Here’s one of them on what’s going on, Josh Homme: “By the time you get to your sixth record, some of the benefits of being in a band are grander than ever, but some of the obstacles are just massive. You deal with these lateral subjects, and all that is left is the elephant in the room.” Are these the barriers to success, or happiness?

Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age breaks down some barriers at the Meltdown festival in 2014. Photograph: Andy Sheppard/Redferns via Getty Images

And so to the final obstacle - traversing a river over a narrow tightrope bridge. Many have fallen. But there at the finish are two you have made it, perhaps having crossed many rivers. Here’s Booker T Washington reflecting on having got this far: “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” Spot on, Booker T. But the final word goes to Superman himself, actor Christopher Reeve who sums up: “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

So then, gather together your many obstacle songs, mentioning literal or metaphorical, social and cultural barriers and let’s build our own tough course. This week’s marvellous marshal and chief motivator is the fantastic Fuel. Place your songs in comments below and optionally in the Spotify list by last orders (11pm BST) this Monday 14 September for the results out on 17 September. Let’s break down those barriers ...

To increase the likelihood of your nomination being considered, please:

• Tell us why it’s a worthy contender.• Quote lyrics if helpful, but for copyright reasons no more than a third of a song’s words.• Provide a link to the song. We prefer Muzu or YouTube, but Spotify or SoundCloud are fine.• Listen to others people’s suggestions and add yours to a collaborative Spotify playlist.• If you have a good theme for Readers recommend, or if you’d like to volunteer to compile a playlist from readers’ suggestions, please email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com• There’s a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.• Many RR regulars also congregate at the ‘Spill blog.

During the week of 19 September 2015 the glorious Guardian Readers Recommend blog is going to be 10 years old. There will be an informal celebration of this during the weekend of Saturday 19 September, with a meeting up from lunchtime onwards on that Saturday in London, near the Guardian’s offices. For more details, and possible other meet-ups around this time, please email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com or keep an eye out on the Readers Recommend topics appearing here each Thursday.

Interested in compiling and writing about a list of songs from readers’ suggestions? Email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com